CSP 20 Writing Los Angeles: Place, Race, Identity

This course will examine the social, historical, and spatial forces that have shaped the formation of Los Angeles as a diverse and multiracial, multiethnic city. We will explore central concepts such as urbanity, diaspora, migration, and racial inequality through critical, cultural, and visual theories. Our course materials will also include nonfiction readings in a range of genres, though much of our consideration of the intersecting structures of race and place will be through representations of LA in literature and film. Writing is central to this course: both in terms of our reading and interpretation of writing about LA and in terms of the writing students will produce—reflective, creative, and expository. This class has required film screenings outside of regular class time and includes a “light” community-based learning component as we explore certain cultural artifacts and spaces in Los Angeles, such as Chinatown or Union Station (in our study of Polanski’s film and Blade Runner), or museum exhibits.